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Tongue (Knights Hospitaller)

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Tongues or langues were the geographic-cultural subgroupings of the members of the Knights of Rhodes/Maltese Knights from the 14th to the 18th century. Functionally they corresponded roughly to the Provinces of other religious orders.

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Tongues or langues were the geographic-cultural subgroupings of the members of the Knights of Rhodes/Maltese Knights from the 14th to the 18th century. Functionally they corresponded roughly to the Provinces of other religious orders. The organization of the Order into tongues emerged in the early 14th century when the Knights Hospitaller took possession of Rhodes and was based on a decision of the Order's Chapter-General in 1301. The initial seven tongues were: Provence, Auvergne, France, Italy, Aragon (with Navarre), England (with Scotland and Ireland) and Germany. In 1462 Castile and Portugal split off from Aragon and formed a tongue of their own. For a brief period in the 18th century there also was a separate tongue of Bavaria. In the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation, some of the tongues, notably the English and German ones, were substantially weakened and could no longer adequately meet their obligations. This led a reorganization and a reduction in the number of tongues. Despite the seeming link to language, this organization was not strictly aligned with linguistic boundaries, but tended to combine the Order's knights and possessions in several nations or states. The German tongue, for instance, included Scandinavia, Hungary, Poland and Bohemia. Each tongue covered at least one Grand Priory. The Grand Prior and the Chapter, which comprised representatives of all bailiwicks and commanderies, administered the individual tongues—including the Order's possessions, its charitable activities (hospitals etc.), parishes incorporated into the Order, and the financial contributions for the defence of Rhodes and later Malta and for the maintenance of the Order's naval forces in the Mediterranean. At the centre, each tongue was represented in the Chapter-General by at least one knight, typically the Bailli who commanded the tongue's knights at the headquarters in Rhodes/Malta and administered its auberge (hostel) where the local members lodged and took their meals. Each tongue was responsible for the maintenance and defence of a specific portion of the fortress defences and had to man it with sufficient numbers of knights and soldiers.